Vontae Davis misses practice again

Cornerback Vontae Davis is having a hard time staying healthy this season.

He was on the side and not practicing during the open media session today, strongly suggesting he would miss the second consecutive day of practice this week -- the only Miami player in that situation.

Davis has a hamstring injury.Still.

He's had it since the second week of the season, which was Sept. 18. He missed games versus Cleveland and San Diego but was back in action the past couple of weeks against the New York Jets and Denver. He was fine against the Jets because he missed three weeks (two games plus a bye week).

But last week he played despite being back on the injury report and missing practice time after tweaking the hamstring again.

His status is uncertain for Sunday's game against the New York Giants.

The rest of the Dolphins were back at practice. if even on a limited basis.

Marc Colombo (knee), Richie Incognito (ankle) and Daniel Thomas (hamstring) returned to practice at the minimum on a limited basis.

If Davis is unable to play, the Dolphins can use Nolan Carroll, Will Allen or Jimmy Wilson in his place. Carroll, however, is also nursing a hamstring injury despite not missing practice either of the past two days.

The irony of the troubles Davis is having so far is that Miami is playing the Giants, a team that wound up with a wide receiver Miami might have picked had it elected to instead of Davis. In 2009, the Dolphins needed help in both areas and elected to go with the player they considered the second-best corner in the draft ahead of receiver Hakeem Nicks.

"I’m not going to get into where we were with the rankings or any of those things but we thought of a lot of (Hakeem) Nicks," coach Tony Sparano said. "Obviously we thought a lot of Vontae (Davis). We went down, worked (Hakeem Nicks) out down there on their campus. There was a whole posse of them, I think four or five guys. They came out with, I believe three receivers. I think (Hakeem) Nicks came out with (Brandon) Tate and actually Brooks Foster who was here for a little while. The three of those guys came out and they had a tight end at the time. We spent some time down there. We obviously liked him and that’s what I’ll tell you."

Nicks this year has 32 receptions for 508 yards with three TDs. He's averaging 15.9 yards per catch. Last year Nicks had 79 catches for 1,052 yards and 11 TDs.

He also has suffered some injury issues as he missed three games in 2010.